Takes

Question Of The Week: Rather Go Out With Friends or Stay Home? You can't venture out of the house these days without tripping over some expert who's got a spiel about "cocooning." No wonder so many folks would just as soon stay home. On the other hand, sociability is such a basic human trait that it may resist the edicts of professional trend-spotters. Does it? In a nationwide survey conducted for Adweek, people were asked: Which do you enjoy more-staying home or going out with friends? Staying home (54 percent) came out with a clear edge over going out with friends (40 percent). We'll ignore the possibility that people who love to be out on the town simply weren't at home when the pollsters telephoned. Male respondents preferred going out to staying home, albeit by a narrow margin (48 percent versus 46 percent). But a landslide majority of female respondents preferred hearth and home to the local fleshpots (62 percent versus 32 percent). So much for the lure of Ladies' Night. As you might expect, the 18-24-year-olds were the age group most likely to prefer going out with friends (60 percent). The 35-44s had the highest stay-at-home turnout (60 percent).

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Females Are Fabulous: Not So Meek and Mild If the mean old male hierarchy is out to squelch young women, it's doing a lousy job of it. A survey conducted for the new Jane magazine among women age 18-34 found 90 percent of respondents saying they're confident, 92 percent calling themselves smart and 89 percent saying they feel attractive. Oh, and 88 percent are ambitious, while 96 percent are hard-working. If any cardinal virtue lies unclaimed by respondents, it's a sense of humility, as 90 percent say they "know what they want out of life." To their elders (whether female or male), that last number looks more suggestive of youthful hubris than of well-grounded confidence. Anyhow, it's reassuring to see that the women look more to their mothers than to pop stars for guidance in life.

Question Of The Week: Rather Go Out With Friends or Stay Home? You can't venture out of the house these days without tripping over some expert who's got a spiel about "cocooning." No wonder so many folks would just as soon stay home. On the other hand, sociability is such a basic human trait that it may resist the edicts of professional trend-spotters. Does it? In a nationwide survey conducted for Adweek, people were asked: Which do you enjoy more-staying home or going out with friends? Staying home (54 percent) came out with a clear edge over going out with friends (40 percent). We'll ignore the possibility that people who love to be out on the town simply weren't at home when the pollsters telephoned. Male respondents preferred going out to staying home, albeit by a narrow margin (48 percent versus 46 percent). But a landslide majority of female respondents preferred hearth and home to the local fleshpots (62 percent versus 32 percent). So much for the lure of Ladies' Night. As you might expect, the 18-24-year-olds were the age group most likely to prefer going out with friends (60 percent). The 35-44s had the highest stay-at-home turnout (60 percent).

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Females Are Fabulous: Not So Meek and Mild If the mean old male hierarchy is out to squelch young women, it's doing a lousy job of it. A survey conducted for the new Jane magazine among women age 18-34 found 90 percent of respondents saying they're confident, 92 percent calling themselves smart and 89 percent saying they feel attractive. Oh, and 88 percent are ambitious, while 96 percent are hard-working. If any cardinal virtue lies unclaimed by respondents, it's a sense of humility, as 90 percent say they "know what they want out of life." To their elders (whether female or male), that last number looks more suggestive of youthful hubris than of well-grounded confidence. Anyhow, it's reassuring to see that the women look more to their mothers than to pop stars for guidance in life.